Some Ted Williams Stats And Facts, In Celebration Of His Centennial

Theodore Samuel Williams was born in San Diego, California, 100 years ago this past Thursday.

In celebration of that centennial, ESPN posted nine of its favourite TSW stats:

2. Williams owns the record for career on-base percentage at .482. No active player has posted an OBP that high in any season. Joey Votto, the active leader in OBP (.428), could reach base successfully in each of his next 650 plate appearances and still not reach Williams' mark. ...

7. Williams recorded five seasons with 100 more walks than strikeouts; all other players in the live ball era (since 1920) have combined for four such seasons. For his career, he walked 1,308 more times than he struck out, the largest gap of its kind.

Ryan Spaeder shared a bunch of mind-bending and mind-blowing facts at The Ace of Spaeder:

Ted Williams had 521 home runs and 525 doubles during his career. If all of his home runs and doubles were outs, he would still have a lifetime on-base percentage that is .00087 higher than Henry Aaron had in his career.

Ted Williams would have to be unfrozen, return to baseball, and go 0 for 1,141 for his career batting average to drop below .300.

Ted Williams would have to be unfrozen, return to baseball, and fail to reach base in 2,000 straight plate appearances for his career on-base percentage to dip below .400.

Ted Williams reached base safely just three fewer times than Derek Jeter, despite 2,814 fewer plate appearances.

Barry Bonds would have to return to baseball and reach base safely in 910 consecutive plate appearances to pass Ted Williams in career on-base percentage.

Joe DiMaggio had a .463 on-base percentage during his record 56-game hit-streak in 1941. Ted Williams had a .482 on-base percentage during his entire career.

Rickey Henderson had a career .401 on-base percentage.
Joe DiMaggio had a career .398 on-base percentage.
Rod Carew had a career .393 on-base percentage.
Ted Williams had a .404 on-base percentage over the WORST 162-game stretch of his career.

Ted Williams started and finished 1,674 games during his career. He reached base safely in 92.2 percent (1,543) of them.

Overall leaders since 1931:

BA: Ted Williams - .344
OBP: Ted Williams - .482
SLG: Ted Williams - .634
OPS: Ted Williams - 1.116
OPS+: Ted Williams - 190
wOBA: Ted Williams - .493
wRC+: Ted Williams - 188

Ted Williams from 1941 to 1947:

1941 - Batted .406
1942 - Triple Crown
1943 - WWII
1944 - WWII
1945 - WWII
1946 - MVP
1947 - Triple Crown

Ted Williams on-base percentage (162 game stretches):

First 162 games - .435
Worst 162 games - .404
Best 162 games - .549
Last 162 games - .442

TSW's batting average on balls in the strike zone:

Why, yes, Williams was giving an interview to a Boston sportswriter when this picture was taken. ... How did you guess?